State of the Art Expansion

[zvenx]

Hi, I was hoping an official thread would have started and I would have piggy backed on it. As some may know a new Gladiator 2 soundbank was released today....
I have two comments:
1) I really think you guys should encourage third party sound developers to create banks and make it easy for them to be able to integrate their sounds in your bank as you currently do not, it replaces not adds.. Quite frankly you use more or the less the same ppl and quite frankly all your sound banks sound more or less the same... I didn't buy the last one and most l likely will not buy this one...maybe if there were on sales yes, but not at $69...it is time for new sounds for this baby imho.
2) some of us had asked for a way to get all the new filters and effects in the last three banks (well I have the first one) at a reduced price without the presets... I am still very much interested in that.
thanks
rsp

[Budbertzerofluff]

I have one question about this expansion. Is it something that adds new functionality to the existing plugin or is it an "unlocks stuff that's already there" expansion?

[mellotronaut]

i'd really like to compile a soundbank for Gladiator, but when i make sounds, i don't remember, which feature is just available in an expansion and which one can i use to satisfy the core users. I stopped  and so i'm a bit impatient and i don't want to stop tweaking, when i need these  'which is for which' informations.
I like especially Bastiaan's stuff a lot, but some new colours  ...

[Bastiaan van Noord]

I have one question about this expansion. Is it something that adds new functionality to the existing plugin or is it an "unlocks stuff that's already there" expansion?

Hi Budbertzerofluff,

Like previous expansions, it unlocks content.

[Bastiaan van Noord]

Hi, I was hoping an official thread would have started and I would have piggy backed on it. As some may know a new Gladiator 2 soundbank was released today....

Hi Zvenx,

No problem starting a thread here

I have two comments:
1) I really think you guys should encourage third party sound developers to create banks and make it easy for them to be able to integrate their sounds in your bank as you currently do not, it replaces not adds.. Quite frankly you use more or the less the same ppl and quite frankly all your sound banks sound more or less the same... I didn't buy the last one and most l likely will not buy this one...maybe if there were on sales yes, but not at $69...it is time for new sounds for this baby imho.

There are some sound products in the pipeline that involve new designers, several products released through NoiseWork as well, although I reckon that's not the third party you referred to

I agree third party releases lack when it comes to HCM/Gladiator, I'm sure we could see if there's something we could do about that, do you have any specific third party sound designers you'd want to hear sounds from?

2) some of us had asked for a way to get all the new filters and effects in the last three banks (well I have the first one) at a reduced price without the presets... I am still very much interested in that.
thanks
rsp

As I mentioned before it's an interesting idea, but one that would be quite difficult to execute without stepping on customer's toes.

[Bastiaan van Noord]

i'd really like to compile a soundbank for Gladiator, but when i make sounds, i don't remember, which feature is just available in an expansion and which one can i use to satisfy the core users. I stopped  and so i'm a bit impatient and i don't want to stop tweaking, when i need these  'which is for which' informations.
I like especially Bastiaan's stuff a lot, but some new colours  ...

Thanks Chris

If you want to program patches for Gladiator and are not sure which features are expansion exclusive, temporarily remove the expansion's keyfile(s) from the Gladiator folder (PC) or from the "/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/" folder (Mac) and reload Gladiator.

Be sure to back them up! and when you need them again, copy them back to the proper folders.

[re_mute]

I'm simply not going to be buying this - I've already bought the filters and extra distortion with the last soundbank etc - why am I being asked to pay for them again?

It's such an ill-thought out scheme - how did Tone2 not see users being pissed off at paying for "features" over and over again?

And just how many different soundbanks are there going to be before you work out that scrolling endlessly through patches gets *really* very quickly.

I'll happily pay for an update that delivers a decent, tagging/star-based browser which enables me to create and save my own banks.
I'd pay for an Ian Boddy soundbank.

Not together though; I'm done with this stupid system, no more money from me.

[zvenx]

I am pretty much feeling the same way that re_mute feels.the current system does not work for me and I am very oppose to it, and will sure my displeasure financially....

I would love to see a Big Tone, Himalaya and an Arksun bank to name a few......as it is I feel you guys are regurgitating the old things over and over.

I would happily pay for extra features without the same presets over and over....
rsp

[Markus Krause]

The 'State of Art' expansion constains exclusive content and features which are not available in any other expansion:

- A selection of 315 inspiring, unique presets aimed at miscellaneous genres of electronic music
- 26 additional waves for OSC5

We received more than 1000(!) patches from 8 sound designers. Only the best 315 were selected. That's why we first annouced it as a best-of-selection.

The filter, distortion and effect types are also available in the dance&trance expansion. Our sound designers requested these features for the expansion, because they wanted to have more creative resources and a larger sonic range for the sound design of this product. Besides that several users have requested a better cross-version-compatibility for custom sounds.

Please do also note that most soundbanks of competing products or 3rd party sound designers contain only 128 patches (with lower quality?) and no additional features at all.

If you are not convinced by the quality of our product, we can recommend that you download the mp3 demo from here:
http://www.tone2.com/Tone2_Gladiator2_State_Of_Art_Expansion.mp3

Best Regards,
Markus Feil

[zvenx]

Markus I did listen to the demo, that's why to me it sounded like more of the same.
rsp

edit: dont' think I had heard that particuliar demo before now,  although they are some very interesting sounds in it, not sure if for me it is worth $69, and I am taken a stance because of the principle of the additional features model....
rsp

[FlameTop]

That is perhaps the key point; The worth of such expansions etc is what you personally can get from them.

For myself, I have found I have gotten far more 'worth' from the Gladiator expansions than I have from expansions for other competing VST products.

[zvenx]

I do agree with you, one can only judge or one should only judge for one's own circumstances.
rsp

[mellotronaut]

i'd really like to compile a soundbank for Gladiator, but when i make sounds, i don't remember, which feature is just available in an expansion and which one can i use to satisfy the core users. I stopped  and so i'm a bit impatient and i don't want to stop tweaking, when i need these  'which is for which' informations.
I like especially Bastiaan's stuff a lot, but some new colours  ...

Thanks Chris

If you want to program patches for Gladiator and are not sure which features are expansion exclusive, temporarily remove the expansion's keyfile(s) from the Gladiator folder (PC) or from the "/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/" folder (Mac) and reload Gladiator.

Be sure to back them up! and when you need them again, copy them back to the proper folders.

never thought about this simple time saver    Thanks, Bastiaan! 

[re_mute]

The filter, distortion and effect types are also available in the dance&trance expansion.

Yes, which I've already bought. So why do I not get a discount for this new expansion?

And the next expansion is going to have to have them in as well, yes - and the next and the next...how many times are your customers going to pay for the same features?

What about customers who want the features but don't want the sounds?

How did you not think this through?

This isn't how Spectrasonics or NI or REFX or Camel Audio or Linplug or any of your competitors do business simply because it *pisses off customers*.

Features=paid upgrade.

Sounds=Expansion/soundbank.

You've got the good customer service bit down after all this time and after building up a negative reputation and now you're pissing it away with these bizarre and backward thinking business practices.

[zippo]

I have bought all 3 expansions and am very satisfied with it. The quality of the patches is much higher than from competing products. There are no duplicates, gap fillers or random button crap like you can find in many competitor's crap soundbanks. All patches are musically usefull and ther are many sounds that i have not heared in any other synth before.

Tone2 did excellent value for money and great support.

@re_mute:

You behave like a pork. You try to put a knife to the developers's kneck and *force* him to do it your way. And you try to force him to give you discount - otherwise you threaten him and write bullshit in the forum.
If i was you i and i wanted discount i would kindly ask him in private by email rather than threatening the developer. ;-)

I was one of the guys who have requested a better cross version compatibility in the past. Markus provided great support and implemeted my feature request.
Now you come here and complain about it. He simply can't do right for everyone.
Please note that there are also other customers like me with different feature requests that yours.

Get realistic: It's 315 patches for EUR 49. That's 15 cent per patch. Besides that you get a large number of new waveforms for the OSC5. These are not part of any other expansion. The value for money is excellent and i really enjoy this product.